At a time when there is a growing popular and scholarly interest in British film, with new sources of funding and notable successes in world markets, this series explores the largely submerged history of the UK's cinema of entertainment.
The series rediscovers and evaluates not only individual films but whole genres, such as science fiction and the crime film, that have been ignored by a past generation of critics. Dismissed for decades as aberrations in the national cinema and anaemic imitations of American originals, these films are now being celebrated in some quarters as important contributions to our cinematic heritage.
This series offers the opportunity for both established cinemastes and new writers to examine long-neglected areas of British film production or to develop new approaches to more familiar territory, and their accessible writing style will make these insights perfect for a wide readership.
By Claire Monk, Amy Sargeant
March 22, 2002
Films recreating or addressing 'the past' - recent or distant, actual or imagined - have been a mainstay of British cinema since the silent era. From Elizabeth to Carry On Up The Khyber, and from the heritage-film debate to issues of authenticity and questions of genre, British Historical Cinema ...
Edited
By I.Q. Hunter, Laraine Porter
May 15, 2012
British comedy cinema has been a mainstay of domestic production since the beginning of the last Century and arguably the most popular and important genre in British film history. This edited volume will offer the first comprehensive account of the rich and popular history of British comedy ...
Edited
By Melanie Bell, Melanie Williams
October 20, 2009
British Women’s Cinema examines the place of female-centred films throughout British film history, from silent melodrama and 1940s costume dramas right up to the contemporary British ‘chick flick’....
Edited
By Robin Griffiths
April 12, 2006
British Queer Cinema draws together a diverse range of innovative new essays that explore, for the first time, the provocative history of lesbian, gay and queer representation in British cinema. From the early years of ‘Pre-Gay’ film, through to the social upheaval of post-war ‘permissiveness’, ...
Edited
By Steve Chibnall, Robert Murphy
June 28, 1999
This is the first substantial study of British cinema's most neglected genre. Bringing together original work from some of the leading writers on British popular film, this book includes interviews with key directors Mike Hodges (Get Carter) and Donald Cammel (Performance). It discusses an ...
Edited
By I.Q. Hunter
June 22, 1999
British Science Fiction Cinema is the first substantial study of a genre which, despite a sometimes troubled history, has produced some of the best British films, from the prewar classic Things to Come to Alien made in Britain by a British director. The contributors to this rich and provocative ...
Edited
By Steve Chibnall, Julian Petley
December 14, 2001
British Horror Cinema investigates a wealth of horror filmmaking in Britain, from early chillers like The Ghoul and Dark Eyes of London to acknowledged classics such as Peeping Tom and The Wicker Man. Contributors explore the contexts in which British horror films have been censored and classified,...